Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens suitable for a television camera, a video camera, a film camera, a broadcasting television camera, and a movie camera, and more particularly, to a telephoto zoom lens having a large aperture and a high magnification.
Description of the Related Art
In a case where a nature program or the like is photographed for television (for example, an animal, a bird, or the like is photographed outdoors from a long distance), a zoom lens that is usable up to a focal length in a super telephoto range at a high magnification (for example, a high magnification of 7× or more and a half angle of field of 3 degrees or less at a telephoto end) and has high optical performance is required. In such photographing, a camera is often carried on a shoulder for photographing, and hence a zoom lens that is smaller in size and weight and has good portability is required. Moreover, in recent years, in addition to related-art video cameras and broadcasting television cameras, opportunities of photographing moving images are increasing as in a case where a camera for still photography, such as a single lens reflex camera, is also used for photographing a moving image. With a zoom lens for photographing a moving image, a zoom operation or a focus operation is performed during photographing, and hence in a case where a total lens length is changed at the time of the operation, an operation sound becomes noise to affect the photography, which is undesirable. Therefore, a demand for a zoom lens in which a first lens unit is fixed during zooming and which is of an inner focus type is increasing as a zoom lens suitable for moving image photography. In general, a size of a sensor (image pickup element) of the single reflex camera is larger than one inch, and is larger than a sensor having a size of one inch or less, which is mainly used in a video camera or a broadcasting television camera. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for the zoom lens having the high magnification and being usable in the super telephoto range, which is compatible with such a large sensor as to exceed one inch, good in portability and functionality, and suitable for moving image photography.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-139858, there is proposed a telephoto zoom lens including four lens units, which has an angle of field of about 0.7 degrees at the telephoto end and a magnification of about 15×, and is suitable for a ⅔-inch broadcasting television camera.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-085846, there is proposed a zoom lens including four lens units, which has an angle of field of about 1.6 degrees at the telephoto end and a magnification of about 3×.
In regard to the zoom lens described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-139858, as a problem in adapting to a still larger image pickup element and increasing a magnification while maintaining a large aperture ratio, an effective diameter on an image side of a zoom lens unit is increased, and hence the entire zoom lens is difficult to downsize.
In regard to the zoom lens described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-085846, as a problem in further increasing the magnification, a movement amount of a third lens unit for correcting an image plane is difficult to suppress, and in addition, a total lens thickness of a first lens unit is large, with the result that the entire zoom lens is difficult to downsize.